New in the Literature: Behavior Change (Physiother Theory Pract. 2012;28(8):571-587.)

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

New in the Literature: Behavior Change (Physiother Theory Pract. 2012;28(8):571-587.)

Physical
therapists (PTs) can effectively counsel patients with respect to lifestyle
behavior change, at least in the short term, say authors of a systematic review published in
the November issue of Physiotherapy
Theory and Practice. PTscan be
effective health counselors individually or within an interprofessional team,
they add.

For
this review, the authors searched databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL,
PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from 1950 to July
2010. Studies were limited to the English, German, and Dutch languages. They
evaluated methodological quality using the Downs and Black tool.

Seven
source articles with a mean quality score of 16.57 ± 4.24 points (range:
low = 0; high = 28) were retrieved. Given considerable methodological
heterogeneity, the studies were compared in a narrative synthesis. The target
populations, types and periods of interventions, outcome measures, and findings
were analyzed.

According
to the authors, multiple health behavior change needs to be a primary 21st
century clinical competence in physical therapy. Future studies will establish
the degree to which effective health counseling augments physical therapy as
well as health outcomes, in the long and short term.

APTA
recently launched a podcast series on behavior change that provides information
on key theories and models and their value to physical therapists and physical
therapist assistants. The podcasts and other resources can be found on APTA's
Health Behavior Change webpage.